


Facets

by Scrapspectyr



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog (Video Games), Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Future, Gen, Not Canon Compliant, OCs are present
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-31
Updated: 2018-03-31
Packaged: 2019-04-16 04:06:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,890
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14156340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scrapspectyr/pseuds/Scrapspectyr
Summary: In a forest a little bit to the left of Underwood Town was a capsule. It was big, and old, and quiet. It looked nice enough, but Gale decided that it was the perfect day to crack it right open.





	Facets

**Author's Note:**

> Heya all! This is my first fanfic for anything that I've ever written, and I'll be honest, my skills aren't as sharp as I would like to be. But hey, how do you know if you're good at something if you never try? Hope you enjoy my little self-indulgent mess.

“So it's decided. We crack that thing like an egg and see what's inside. Can't be hard.”

 

This was a bad plan. Tempest knew it was a bad plan. The thing was layered in logos from the days of war, not to mention moss and rust and a  _ bad case of tetanus just waiting to happen-- _

 

“And you're going to break it open  _ how, again?” _

 

Tempest breathed an inward sigh of relief. Prima always knew what to say.

 

The quip was clearly aimed at Gale. His face crinkled in response to the question, with the least hint of offense about him. The question was serious, and Gale was seriously considering ways the job could be done. On any other day, the idea would have died here.

 

Unfortunately for all of them, this was not any other day. 

 

“Oh no, you weren't joking. You weren't joking at any point.” Tempest’s face fell into his hands. Prima was messing with her ponytail again, but feverishly, like she was trying to unravel every stray strand of hair. Gale was characteristically unfazed, still trying to scope out a hole in the cylinder's platinum armor. 

 

Argent, who had been silent up to this point, spoke up with barely contained enthusiasm.

 

“Guys! Door!”

 

Xe was right. Right in the middle of the tarnished cylinder was a narrow slit, barely visible from a distance. It was made even less visible by the array of locks and mechanics that lay over it. They were all clustered together in an inscrutable metal pile, and some of the mechanisms looked newer than others, like they had been added after the fact.

 

Silence in the group. The rusty tangle required a moment of quiet respect.

 

Gale scowled at the cylinder. After a second or two, he disappeared into the woods on the second quickest heel-turn he’d ever executed. This warranted no response, as Gale was  _ strange like that _ . 

 

Argent shook xis head and stood. The iguana had been scoping the structure out for about a week before deciding to tell the rest of the group. 

 

“So.” Prima said. Her tone inspired fear, like usual. “Why’d you wait to say anything?” Her sarcasm had melted away, turning into genuine curiosity. Her quills flew to the side as she turned to look Argent in the eyes. 

 

“Oh, no reason. I just wanted the  _ totally safe and not at all dangerous  _ tetanus disaster machine to myself for like, a whole week.” 

 

_ A rare and risky sarcasm turnabout, _ Tempest thought. 

 

“Yeah, I just wanted to get a profile on the thing, just in case it was full a’ something..” Argent’s snout crinkled slightly. “.. not so nice.”

 

“Glad to see you’re taking after me.” Prima leaned against a nearby tree. “I can’t always be the one to watch over you lovable disasters.” 

 

The silence after that hurt. Not a sharp hurt, but a quiet, biting sort of hurt. 

 

Three friends, quiet together. A weird solidarity. 

 

The pensive moment was unceremoniously shattered by the frenzied rustling of something in the bushes behind them. 

 

“Move, move, move!” 

 

Gale was shouting as he came into view. He was scrambling through the underbrush with a massive log in his hands. The end of the log had one sharply splintered end, and he was holding it upright. The fact that he was able to hold it that way, much less carry it through the densely wooded zone he got it from was a wonder. 

 

“What in the--” Tempest was cut off as Gale pushed through the clump of friends. He had thrown Argent a tad bit off balance, and the iguana was windmilling to catch xis balance. 

 

Gale was rushing forward, directly towards the cylinder, with his big stick. The capsule itself was sitting placidly in a clearing. There wasn’t any tree cover here, so the thing was absolutely demolished by rust and stray saplings as well. 

 

The massive structure looked like it was, at one time, quite well maintained. There was a tiny overgrown footpath leading up to the door, which was lined with dust and dirt. In some places the old paint was still visible under the rust. Streaks of yellow, black, and red were especially prominent. 

 

It was then when Tempest noticed a symbol along with some faint remnants of writing underneath. 

_ Project… Something.  _ Half of the letters had been unceremoniously scratched out, the gorges filled with even more rust. 

 

Tempest wondered what the monolith contained. 

 

He didn’t have to wonder long, because that was approximately when Gale decided to start whacking the lock tangle with his weapon. This was the same time when the other three realized they couldn’t really stop him. They all stood, looking on a little more than mild concern. 

 

Argent was fidgeting nervously. “I really don’t--”

 

“I really don’t think that’s going to work.” Tempest finished. Prima raised her eyes in surprise. “Good to finally see you, Temp. I was beginning to wonder if you were alive.” 

 

Her ever-present smugness was shining through again. Prima ruled the friend group through friendly ridicule more than anything else, but she was benevolent. She made sure they all went to sleep on time and didn’t break their bones, and that was all they could really ask from the echidna. 

 

Argent was shuffling nervously. “Hey, Gale, do you need to sit down or anything? Pass off the smashing duties?”

 

“No no, I think I got--” 

 

Gale was interrupted when sirens began to blare from the monolith in the most discordant possible fashion. It was a screech and a clang and every worst noise you've ever heard. And it was LOUD. The noise almost seemed to be bouncing off the mountains and coming back angrier than before. If there were any Flickies here to begin with, they wouldn't be back for a couple of months.

 

Argent was screaming now. “SHUT IT OFF! TURN IT OFF!! I SWEAR TO CHASS IF WE GET FOUND OUT--” 

 

The tall iguana ripped the stick from Gale’s hands and swung it with a frankly, unmatched ferocity. He somehow managed to hit the panel that threw up the alarm, and the sirens came to a sudden and strangled stop. 

 

Xis eyes were wide with abject terror, and xe was breathing heavily.

 

“Sorry guys. Force of habit.”

 

The four Mobians fell silent in the field, straining to hear any sign of disaster over the soft rustling of the trees. 

“I don’t… I don’t hear anything, guys.” Prima broke the silence. She was always doing brave stuff like that. 

 

The other three slowly adjusted to the concept of being safe. There were no wails in the distance, or thundering behind the mountains. At least not yet. 

 

Prima slowly stood to her feet, her orange quills betraying her shakiness. “Alright, we have to work quick--”

 

_ HSSSHHHHHHHHHH! _

 

The cylinder began to scream, the sound of long-dead hydraulics hissing to life turning the air shrill. The slit between the metal doors began to widen, straining against the remaining locks-- and winning. It was almost like realizing a rubber band is about to snap while it was in your hand. The whole platinum monolith kept shaking as metal scraped on metal and  _ finally  _ the doors slammed open with shattering force. Bits of twisted iron from the locks flew in all directions, and it took almost  _ everything, it seemed  _ to just curl into a ball and wait.

 

_ Wait and hope and pray and curl just a little bit  _ **_tighter--_ **

 

A harsh gust of air, cold dirt being thrown onto a body, and it was abruptly over. 

 

Tempest, however, did not trust like that. After all of that, there was no way it could possibly be over. But yet, the grass still rustled. 

 

_ Huh. How about that. _

 

It took what seemed like years to recover from the panic. Years of just waiting for some kind of confirmation, from anyone,  _ anything _ , that it was safe to stand up to stretch or something. The curl gets kind of annoying and painful after a while.

 

Pain. Pain meant he was alive. Pain meant he still had nerves.

 

_ Oh good, I’m not dead. Sick.  _

 

Tempest tentatively stretched out on the grass. His leg hit a huge chunk of metal a few inches away. It was cold.

 

_ Too close for comfort. _

 

Tempest heard a shaky inhale a few meters away. “Everyone okay?” Prima shouted. 

 

“Oof, yeah. I think so. What even WAS that?” Gale piped up. He was sitting straight up, as if nothing had happened. Gale was resilient like that.

 

In contrast, Argent was muttering to xemself, facedown in the dirt. “I’m sorry guys, I’m sorry, I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN--”

 

“Shut up!” Prima yelled. “You didn’t know, and no one’s hurt, and hey, it’s open!”

 

The two sheets of metal that used to be doors lay kind of crumpled in their frames. Looking at them felt like the physical version of a wince-- they would probably never shut again. Not that that hurt Tempest at all-- at this point, he couldn’t give a flying flick about the death tube contraption. 

 

But he had to admit, there was a kind of pull about it. At times, the whole clearing warped around the silver shape in this way that make Tempest kind of nauseous. It was all he could do to look away and try not to pass out from the pure  _ excitement  _ of the last few minutes. 

 

Argent was standing stock-still, staring intently into the dark nexus of the capsule. Xis eyes widened for a second.

 

_ Oh no.  _

 

“So, I don’t mean to alarm anyone,” xe started. There was a considerable pause. Xis eyes were darting nervously between the open door and the three pairs of intent eyes trained on xim at the moment. “I think there’s someone in there.”

 

And just like that, Tempest was steady on his feet. 

 

The funny thing about being told death was on your heels every day was that it made you an excellent survivalist. “If you fear everything, you have nothing to fear.” Gale’s mom had always said. 

 

All four of them had always been kind of skittish. It was the way of life out here, after all. Logic dictated that your kids were better off learning to recognize a threat at a young age. 

 

Nevertheless, they rushed to the open door. 

 

They were all horribly squished at the door. Antlers were poking into frills and quills got cramped and  _ ow my feathers are bent  _ but there he was, just like Argent had said. 

 

Definitely Mobian. Red and some other dark color. Something spiky. Asleep.

 

Trapped. 

The mobian was locked in a strange capsule the size of their body. The color of the capsule was faded somewhat, and there was a window perfectly shaped for the mobian’s head. Despite apparently not being touched, the inside of the window was covered in some sort of dried  _ something,  _ as it had left water line marks all over the inside of the glass.

 

A small patch underneath the glass cap listed what appeared to be serial codes-- in fact, more than any of the group could make out. They were clustered so close together that it was nearly unintelligible. Tiny monitors that had long since fallen silent took up what little wall space there was.

 

Suddenly, there it was. A massive symbol on the wall behind the mobian’s head.

  
_ Project Shadow,  _ it read.

**Author's Note:**

> How do you suspense? How do all those other authors do it? Because lemme tell ya, I have exactly NO idea how to do it


End file.
